Crocheted Purse

This is a new little passport bag-style purse I made for Little Bit. It was supposed to be for her birthday, but it actually came around about four days later. Oh, well. It's a little too Pepto Bismol pink for my liking, but she loves it. She's going through this pink phase. I guess every little girl does. I was mostly a tom boy when I was little, and I STILL had that pink and purple stage. Go figure. But she really likes the beads on it, too, and I was quite pleased with how that turned out. They're not sewn on separately, but actually crocheted right in. That way, it not only looks nice, but they're a lot sturdier, which is good when I have two three-year-olds running around the house. I need to make me one like this, only in fall colors (and no beads). Would be nice to grab when I just have to run to the store and don't want to take my tote bag of a purse with me. :)

Homemade Butter

Well, I finally did it, after talking about it for months and months. I've finally made my very own homemade butter. And am AMAZED at how quick and easy it was. Seriously. Just popped the cream into the food processor and BAM! In just a few minutes...not even that long, I had butter. I must've had it at EXACTLY the right temp. or whatever, because it didn't even take the 5-8 min. everyone online said it should have. More like two. Cool.

Of course I did have to pour up the buttermilk and then rinse the butter repeatedly with ice water until it ran clear (which was easy enough)...then get all the leftover water out. (If you've never made butter, the ice water doesn't mix with the butter, but you have to squish and mash the butter really good to get all the remaining droplets that stick in all the little nooks and crannies.) That last part was slightly a pain (and stupidly, I let a big hunk of the butter fall into a dirty bowl in the sink while trying to do this...I didn't have it squished good to the side...sigh), but I think it would be much easier if I could find my cheesecloth, which, of course, I can't. Naturally. And the store didn't have any that I could find, so I guess I'll have to order me some more or wait until I go to the kitchen store next time.

But back to the butter...I saved some just salted, then jazzed up the other as honey butter. And oh my goodness, it's good! I tried some on some homemade blueberry mini muffins just last night, and "OH! MAN!" I am seriously going to start doing this on a regular basis. I am most certainly sold on this and esp. the honey butter, though my Little Bit insists the plain butter is best. SHRUG Go figure. To each his own, huh? :) Still, never thought I'd see the day when my child was telling me the plain was better than the SWEET. Kind of odd. Oh, well. :)

Anyway, this is what they looked like, only there was much more...this is after having eaten a big portion of it...

Migraines

I want to apologized for being scarce lately, but I have been hit with a plague of migraines these past few weeks and so, of course, haven't gotten nearly as much done as I would have liked. I will try and be back soon with a few pics of some stuff I finished a bit ago. Despite the pain and suffering over here, I am optimistic things will be much better soon, as I can already feel Fall in the air, see it in the angle of the sun, despite the still 90 degrees temps during the day. Fall is coming, and that always makes me happy!

Happy Monday everybody!

Stop Its

This was just too funny not to share. For some reason, unbeknownst to all but them, my baby boys have decided that Cocoa Puffs are called "Stop Its." You can imagine the look on my face the first time they asked for these. And how hard I laughed when I figured out what they were talking about. The ONLY (and I mean ONLY) thing I can think of is one of the first days I offered them some, one of them (I don't remember which one now) was trying to take his brother's, and he didn't like it. (Get it? Stop its?) So, I figured maybe that was it...they think of them as those things they have to defend from the other, maybe? LOL They are so hilarious, my babies. And SOOOO in sync with each other. They are, of course, identical twins, so this makes sense, but it constantly amazes me how they ALWAYS understand each other, even when they say things that apparently make no sense to me. Like Stop Its. :)

And I still get a little giggle every time I get to say, "Hurry up and eat your stop its, hun." :)

One More

And here we go again. Same pattern, different sleeves and a contrasting strip sewn to the bottom (that matches the sleeves and bodice). This is my favorite pattern for her so far, though she's about to outgrow it...I'm having to alter it already. Wanted to get a few more tops out of it before I couldn't use it any more.

And the plus...I made the whole thing (minus cutting out, which I already did) in one day! WITH (and here's the clencher) the kids playing around me. I put my old machine in the kitchen and went at it while they played. AND I even took them, GASP, in my sewing room to do the button holes (my new machine does that SO much better.) And they didn't destroy anything! LOL Finally, the boys are getting old enough to start (slowly) taking them with me in the sewing room. They're just so rambunctious and there's so much for them to get hurt on in there, that I've tried to keep them out most of the time. But it's coming!! Yea!!

New Fall Top

I love the way this top turned out for my Little Bit. The sleeves are a tad bit longer, the brown fabric, a bit thicker (for fall), and the colors, perfect. What makes it even better was it was practically a freebie. The pattern is from fabric.com's grab bag of cottom remnants, and the brown is leftover from something I made myself years ago...not even sure any more, to be honest. Anyway, she loves it, and so do I. I especially like the flower-shaped mother of pearl buttons at the back. The finishing touch. :)

Repurposed Dress

My Little Bit has grown a lot lately, right out of a lot of her dresses! And so I was left with a couple (and one in particular) dresses that I just HATED to put away. You might remember this one I made a while back. Anyway, it dawned on me that the same pattern for this dress is the same one I used to make her some tops, so I just lopped off the bottom, hemmed it up nice and neat and WAH-LAH. New shirt. :) She likes it, and it's the perfect length to wear to school with the jeans. It's very cute, and she's very happy with it. After all, this was the dress she designed. :)